Quinoa Paella

In my pursuit of trying quinoa in my usual rice dishes, tonight I tried paella. I’ve been meaning to try one with shrimp instead of our usual sausage, so tonight I did. The end result was flavorful and filling. It came out at 3 servings at 386 calories and 5.9 calories per serving.

Now…there was a picture. Several, in fact. And when I prepped one of my other posts and was pulling images off the memory card, I thought I had already pulled these and prepped them (because this was hanging out in the queue)…and so deleted the original images. Except I hadn’t actually prepped the picture yet, so you have no pretty. But take my word for it that it looks like…well, paella.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa

2 cups chicken stock

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dried minced onion

1/4 cup diced red peppers

1/2 cup diced zucchini

1/3 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup peas and carrots

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 pinch saffron

1 pinch cayenne pepper

12 oz. shelled shrimp

Directions:

Add a little bit of the stock to a large skillet.

Add the onion and garlic and simmer over medium heat until softened.

Rinse the quinoa. Even if it says pre-rinsed, just do it. Quinoa naturally produces some stuff that acts as a…well I forget what, but a lot of people are allergic, so it’s better to rinse extra.

Add the quinoa to the skillet with the saffron, cayenne, and paprika. Stir well.

Add all but 1/4 cup of the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cover.

Cook for 10 minutes.

Add the shrimp and vegetables. Recover.

Cook for another 15 minutes, checking at 5 to add the last of the stock.